A Laid-Back Italian Trattoria With Nautical Themes, and Other News

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A Laid-Back Italian Trattoria With Nautical Themes

A new culinary aerie in San Diego is adding more buzz to an already vibrant culinary scene. Perched on the 20th floor of the InterContinental in the city’s Gaslamp Quarter, Seneca is a laid-back Italian trattoria housed within the members-only Reading Club. Prolific hospitality firm AvroKO finessed an elevated nautical theme in dapper fashion to match the seafood-centric menu, with glossy wooden floors reminiscent of a luxury yacht, a central streamline 1940s banquette recalling the WWII-era pin-up aesthetic, and a private dining room inspired by a captain’s quarters, porthole window and all. 

Beneath a sweeping copper ceiling and stationed on tasseled furniture, patrons have a front-row seat to observe executive chef Russell Rummer’s team in the open-format kitchen, cooking ingredients over the open flame of a hearth. A few standout dishes: wood-fired prawns, mozzarella hand-stretched tableside, and charred whole fish Branzino.

Krista Kim has designed a digital fabric inspired by fluidity and Dutch rave culture.

The digital artist Krista Kim, perhaps best known for pioneering the world’s first NFT house, has created a digital fabric designed to channel the fluidity of water. Named “Transcendence” and intended for use in Amsterdam-based digital fashion house The Fabricant’s Nymph collection, the fabric is currently being used on a headdress that draws inspiration from Dutch rave culture. “The fabric is inspired by Krista’s meditative design approach with a creative gradient that channels the fluidity of water, which comes back in the dynamics of the headdress,” Michaela Larosse, The Fabricant’s head of content, told Dezeen. “We took a deep dive into the building blocks of Dutch cultural identity, discovering old worlds that gave us new perspectives. There’s a mind-blowing richness to the mythologies and symbolism of our native stories.” Nymph is on sale as an NFT on the virtual marketplace SuperRare. 

The $100 million sale of Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull never happened.

In 2007, Damien Hirst claimed to have sold a diamond-studded skull to an anonymous group of investors for $100 million. Given that his gallery White Cube published no concrete evidence about the sale, the art-world hype surrounding it, and the inconsistencies in Hirst’s story, skepticism arose. Now, in a recent New York Times profile, the British artist has admitted that the deal never actually happened. According to Hirst, the famous artwork, titled For the Love of God, has been sitting in a storage facility in London’s jewelry district Hatton Gardens for the past 15 years. 

Marcel Breuer’s first binuclear house has been demolished overnight in Long Island.

Earlier this week, Marcel Breuer’s first binuclear house was unexpectedly demolished overnight in Long Island. The residence, known as Geller I and located in the village of Lawrence, helped propel Breuer to private practice and convinced the Museum of Modern Art to commission him to design an exhibition house in the institution’s courtyard in 1949. According to reports, the demolition took place because of changing property dynamics and local planning laws to prevent the destruction. Had the structure been preserved, it would have likely been included in the National Register of Historic Places.  

Making further strides toward sustainability, Moncler pledges to go fur-free by 2024.

Earlier this week, Moncler announced that it will phase out the use of fur as part of ongoing sustainability efforts and commitments to responsible business practices as a representative of the Fur Free Alliance. The news coincides with the Italian label’s second Born to Protect collection, which will incorporate such lower-impact materials as responsibly sourced recycled nylon and polyester, organic cotton, wool, and down within its range of jackets and other ready-to-wear garments and accessories for men, women, and children. The brand also announced that Michael Beutler will join the company as chief sustainability officer; he previously spearheaded sustainability efforts at Kering. 

Thomas Heatherwick unveils an undulating landscaped pier on Seoul’s Han River.

Heatherwick Studio has unveiled visuals for The Leaf, a landscaped pier that juts out into Seoul’s Han River. It’ll take share as a seven-pointed star with undulating topographies not unlike the studio’s recently completed Little Island in New York. When complete, the multi-level pier will include a flexible event space and auditorium covered by a walkable roof scape that features meandering trails, observation points, and water gardens. “At the heart of our project is the idea of playful togetherness,” Stuart Wood, partner and group leader at Heatherwick Studio, said in a statement. “We want this to be. Refreshing and dynamic new civic space for the city of Seoul, where people come to laugh, explore, and connect. Somewhere joyful and restorative for everyone.” 

After opening new flagships in Seattle and L.A., Glossier lays off 80 employees. 

Though Glossier secured $80 million in Series E funding over the summer, the beauty brand let go of 80 employees this week. In a letter to employees announcing the layoffs, CEO Emily Weiss said the company had “got ahead of ourselves on hiring” and that “strategic projects distracted us from the laser-focus we needed to have on our core business: scaling our beauty brand.” The pandemic hasn’t been kind to Glossier, which shuttered its two flagships in New York and Los Angeles in 2020. Though the brand recently relaunched its retail strategy by opening new stores in Seattle, Los Angeles, and London, an increasingly crowded beauty market caused its total year-over-year holiday sales to decline 22 percent. 

The Whitney Biennial, which opens in April, announces the 63 participating artists. 

Organizing the upcoming Whitney Biennial, one of art world’s most highly anticipated exhibitions, is a herculean task during regular times. This year, faced with travel restrictions, curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards selected the influential exhibition’s 63 participating artists after conducting studio visits and interviews on Zoom. The duo aims for the exhibition, called “Quiet as It’s Kept” and responding to the pandemic, social unrest, and political conflicts, will permit “a taking stock, a way of seeing what we’re maybe not at the end of, but in the middle of, and how art can help make sense of our times.” Among the artists included are Yto Barrada, Ellen Gallagher, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Woody De Othello.

Today’s attractive distractions:

Oyster shells and mussels can be found all throughout this London restaurant.

Now you can mint an exclusive NFT if Elon Musk has blocked you on Twitter.

VanMoof’s new stop-motion ad is shedding new light on anti-theft technology.

The case of “West Elm Caleb” shows why online accountability efforts are tricky.